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While the regular school year is still weeks away, Columbus City Schools launched their free
lunch program this week at their only year-round school, Woodcrest Elementary on the East Side.

Starting in a few weeks, all 50,000-plus students can get a free lunch, regardless of their
family’s income, under a federal program that the district will participate in for the first time
this school year.

And because the district should serve more lunches now that they’re free, and because the U.S.
Department of Agriculture reimburses more for lunch than the district would charge its students,
the $26 million-a-year food program should break even for the first time in more than a decade,
said Food Services Director Joe Brown.

That means local taxpayers won’t be paying a subsidy. The food program lost $1.75 million for
the 2012-13 school year, including about $300,000 in uncollected debt from students who were
required to pay for meals but didn’t. District policy was to never refuse to serve students lunch,
regardless of whether they pay.

The district charged between $2.25 and $2.75 for lunch, depending on the students’ grade levels,
while the USDA now will pay $3 per lunch for all meals, meaning a windfall, Brown said. Meanwhile,
the district’s Downtown food-production center and in-school kitchens “are really fixed costs,”
Brown said. “They are not going to go up or down if we do this.”

Last school year, the district provided nearly 10 million breakfasts and lunches at 113
locations. Other districts that have switched over to serving only free lunches have experienced on
average a 9 to 12 percent increase in total lunches served, Brown said.

Parents used to have to apply for free and reduced-price lunches, a process that took employees
countless hours, said Superintendent Dan Good. Now, those employees can focus on preparing and
serving food, he said.

The program was made possible through the 2010 federal Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which
allows districts in low-income areas to provide free meals to all students, while decreasing the
amount of paperwork required.

Instead of being paid based on how many parents fill out applications proving their kids qualify
for the free or reduced-price lunch, districts are reimbursed by a formula based on students
identified as low-income by participating in other programs, such as food stamps.

Research shows that good nutrition is connected to student success, Good said. According to the
USDA, poorly nourished children miss more school from illness, fail to keep up with classmates and
have decreased activity levels, social interactions, curiosity and cognitive functioning.

The district began serving free breakfasts to all students several years ago.